Leaning Sideways

Spring in Saskatchewan! For anyone who has never had the pleasure, spring out in the middle of the Canadian prairies means wind ... make that WIND, the lower case letters just don't convey power of what's going on outside tonight.

There was a cartoon in one of the farm papers a while ago that featured a "You Are Now Entering Saskatchewan" sign in the foreground, and in the distance everything else in the drawing had a lean to it: trees, barns, bale stacks, elevators ... even the sign wasn't quite on the square. One picture is worth a thousand words ...

Not that everything is bent over, of course, but we do withstand our share of wind. Luckily the snow is all crusted over with ice because we've had some warm, sunshiney days lately so there'll be no blizzard conditions out of it, but it's going to be a noisey night with the wind howling into the yard just outside our bedroom window. A few years ago, before we took the old shingles off and replaced them with metal roofing, we had some really noisey nights when the wind started slapping the shingles up and down. Now, with the metal roof the windy nights are quite tame, but when it rains or we get hail - that's another story!

Glen has been busy these past few days being a nursemaid to two new calves born Monday afternoon. We weren't expecting any babies until the end of the month so the cows hadn't been moved into the barns. We try to keep the immenent births under a roof and in fresh bedding, but these guys were born outside in the wet snow, so they had quite a few strokes against them when we found them. They were wet, cold, and weak from being a little premature, and their mother just doesn't know what to make of having two babies. To top that all off, Glen had to go out with a big calf sled and haul them back to the barn, take the babies into the heated well house to dry them (with my hiar dryer) and rub them down. They were too weak to get up and nurse so we mixed up formula for them, too. The larger one is up and nursing off his mom now, but the little guy, although he's come a long way since Monday night, is still getting bottle fed. Glen has named them Dumb and Dumber.

We got caught not selling our last year's calves before the border was due to open. Glen figured if the prices were good before, they'd be better after. I don't know what he was thinking, no one was surprised when the border stayed shut - disappointed, but not surprised - so why had he hung on to the cattle that were ready for market? I have a feeling that we'll have a long time to think that one over. There is a lot of ill will toward the Americans these days. The R-CALF guys are buying cheap Canadian cattle, having it processed here and are selling it in the States, but their case to stop the import of live cattle from this country is that it is unsafe. We all grew up watching the cowboys in the white hats - the John Waynes - show us how to be noble and good, everything that America was supposed to stand for. It speaks volumes now that they appear to only stand for greed.